


there's a storm ahead

by no_nutcracker



Category: Charmed (TV 1998)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Identity Reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-21
Updated: 2021-01-21
Packaged: 2021-03-12 12:07:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28885098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/no_nutcracker/pseuds/no_nutcracker
Summary: Big brother has come to visit.
Relationships: Chris Halliwell & Leo Wyatt, Chris Halliwell & Wyatt Halliwell
Comments: 6
Kudos: 58





	there's a storm ahead

Chris and Leo are standing on the Golden Gate Bridge, talking about another threat Chris has been researching (Leo being half in communion with the other Elders while listening to him) when Chris snaps his head away.

'Did you hear that?,' he asks with concern.

'What?,' Leo asks distractedly, his eyes still closed.

'I could have sworn...' Chris frowns. Then swallows back his words. 'No, nothing,' he whispers hollowly. He slowly shakes his head. 

_Back to the matter at hand_ , he urges himself. _'You've got no time for imagined threats best left in the future._

'So I was saying that-' He stops abruptly. 

That familiar tingle in the back of his mind (that _connection_ he made sure to sever years ago) has returned and is pulling at him heavily.

It should not be possible.

It could only mean one thing.

'Chris?,' he belately hears Leo voice warily.

Chris does not respond. _That's not possible_ , he thinks. 'Something is wrong,' he says.

He orbs.

Now truly worried about the half-whitelighter's behaviour, Leo leaves the bridge as well and follows Chris' familiar orbs.

*

Chris orbs back into the Manor's dining room, startling Piper on her way out of the kitchen.

'Chris!,' she scolds him. 'You could warn us when you come in.'

This is exact moment Leo 'chooses' to orb in. 

Piper rolls her eyes. 'Never mind. I don't know why I bother anymore,' she mutters.

Oblivious to all of this, his gaze already on the living room, Chris demands: 'Who else is here?' 

Leo follows his gaze but does not see anything, nor feel anything evil. He is left puzzled by Chris' reactions.

Piper eyes the both of them warily. 'Paige and Pheobe. Wyatt is upstairs. What's the matter with you two?'

'Are you sure there is only the three of you?,' her whitelighter insists.

Piper frowns. 'Well, there is-'

'What the hell is happening here?!,' Pheobe calls while rushing to join them. 

Piper and Leo stare at her bemused while Chris keeps on staring despondently at the living room. 

'What?,' Piper asks. 'What are you talking about?!'

Pheobe makes a pained sound and clenches her stomach. Piper approaches her and grips her left arm.

'Pheobe, what is it?,' the older sister inquires worriedly.

'Chris,' her sister retorts. Piper and Leo turn back to look at him. ' _What is it?_ ' 

'What do you mean?,' Leo asks when the younger man keeps quiet.

'Usually I can't sense anything from him but right now? I feel gigantic waves of fear. He's beyond frightened! Chris, what is it?'

Instead of responding, Chris turns to pierce Piper with sharpened eyes and snarls: ' _Who_ is in that room?!' 

'Wha-?,' the witch answers, feeling wrong footed. 'Oh! You mean... Yes, I found an innocent near the club earlier this afternoon. He was being attacked by demons. Is that it? Is this what's been eating at you? Chris, we're fine. He is fine. Do you-' she cuts herself when Chris leaves, no longer heeding her words. 'Okayy,' she drawls.

Then Leo leaves as well, hurrying after Chris. 'Okay,' she laughs bitterly. 'What is happening here?!,' she snaps.

Pheobe, who has finally stopped gripping at her belly, replies: 'I think we should follow them and find out.'

*

Chris is in the Sunroom, hiding behind a cupboard while observing the 'innocent' Piper brought home. Said 'innocent' is now discussing with Paige while eating biscuits.

The picture is, indeed, innocent. Chris does not trust it.

He stares intently at him. Short dark hair, freckles on his pale face, lithe and taller than Paige even while sitting. That man does not look like anyone Chris has seen before.

 _But his eyes_. His blue blue eyes leave him stricken.

He knows those eyes.

'Chris?,' Leo calls quietly. 'Do you know him?'

Chris' heart is pounding in his chest. Does he know him?

 _Not anymore_ , he wishes he could say.

Yet, even after all the horrors he had committed, Chris can still recognise this man. He can still see bits of the boy he used to be, the one Chris used to love.

There is no forgetting Wyatt.

Piper and Pheobe join them just as Chris wets his lips and responds: 'you can say that.'

He leaves them and enters the living room.

*

Wyatt catches his eye as he enters (the others following closely behind him) and grins. 'Look at you,' he says. 'It feels like years have passed since we last saw each other.'

Paige turns around and see them all standing near the doorway. She looks from Chris to her 'innocent' and frowns. 'You two know each other?'

Wyatt smiles and rises. 

Paige does the same, taking a few steps back from him.

'Did you miss me?,' his brother teases.

'Who are you?,' Piper asks, alarmed.

Wyatt's features shimmer and his true self finally appears.

Everyone except Chris gasps.

Wyatt smirks. 'Can't you recognise your own son, mother dear?'

Piper sways on her feet at the words. At the same time, Paige lets out a disbelieving chortle. Pheobe keeps on clenching her belly.

Leo simply stares at his older son in steadiness.

Wyatt looks at them boredly. 'This is rapidly getting tedious.'

'Why are you here?,' Chris asks although he already knows the answer.

Wyatt grins amusedly at him, apparently taking his question like a game (maybe they never stopped playing games). 'What do you think?'

'No no no no. You can't be Wyatt. Wyatt is a toddler. My son is not even a year old.'

'Time travel,' they respond in unison.

Piper hisses and tries to freeze Wyatt. 

Predictably, it does not work.

Wyatt eyes her dispassionately. 'Really, mother?'

'Why are you here?,' she continues. 'Why would Chris be afraid of you? It makes no sense.'

Chris stills at her words. Wyatt loses his smile. 

'Afraid?,' he repeats flatly. He turns to look at him with empty eyes. 'Why would you be afraid of me?'

'Exactly,' their mother nods her head emphatically. 'It makes no sense,' she repeats.

'You know why,' Chris answers, ignoring her.

Wyatt narrows his eyes. 

*

Chris recognises his brother's fury. He knows all the signs. From the trademark curl of his lips, to the blinking pupil.

He is not surprised when Wyatt lets out a powerful blast that sends everyone else flying through the air and knock against walls, chairs or to the ground.

He is surprised he is still standing.

(But maybe he should not. This is only a power show on his brother's part. Contrarily to the last time they met, Wyatt is in control here. He won't hurt Chris without meaning to.)

(But Chris can chose to hurt him.)

*

When Leo wakes up, he does not waste his time scrambling off the ground to rise. Instead, he reaches for his Elder powers and _projects_.

It is not a well known fact but one of the abilities that Elders and whitelighters have is the ability to seek and find their blood relatives. It is alike the bond between a whitelighter and their protegees, except that all is in the blood.

To verify the blond man's claim (and to make sure he has a good reason to stop Piper from blowing the man up when she wakes up), Leo searches for any blood bonds he has with the inhabitants of the manor. He feels his infant son lying asleep in his bed and _yes_ , he feels that man. Wyatt. Somehow returned from the future. And not at all like he imagined him to be as an adult.

He also feels chris. 

_How can he feel chris?_

But the answer is all too obvious and it makes Leo want to vomit. _How could they have treated_ him _like that?! How could_ he _have treated_ **his own son** _the way he did?!!_

He has no time to despair, however, nor to further fustigate himself. Not with Piper standing back up from her fall to the ground and screaming: 'You are not my son! No son of mine would dare to attack us.'

'He is,' he hears himself say.

Heads swivel his way (though Wyatt and Chris keep on staring at each other). 

Leo winces. 'He is. I can feel it. It is a power that whitelighters and Elders have and that allows us to feel our blood relatives.'

He sees Chris nervously tilting his head and glancing at him from the corner of his eye.

Leo tries to catch his gaze but the boy - _his boy_ \- turns back to look at his brother.

Brothers.

Piper and Leo -because Leo can not imagine having children with anyone but his beloved (ex)wife- will have another son!

...will they?

Leo narrows his eyes at Chris. 'Chris, how old are you?,' he presses, feeling nervous.

Because Wyatt looks barely older than his brother and Leo and Piper are very much separated and not in the mood to get back together to have a second child (Or at least, he does not think _Piper_ is). What if they somehow missed the date of the conception and Chris is not to be born any longer?

But- no. His son would have already faded away if it was the case.

...oh god, he needs to know when _it_ happens so he can make _it_ happen to make sure his son actually exists.

'What does this have to do with anything?!,' Piper angrily demands.

Wyatt's smile turns mischievous. He looks at them with a glimmer in his eyes before turning back to Chris. 'You mean they don't know?,' he taunts him.

'First: ouch!,' Paige says, as she finally reenters the living room (after having been projected outside of it by Wyatt's powerful blast). 'Second: what now?,' she huffs, annoyed.

'Nothing,' Chris responds hurriedly.

'Urgh. No. Not nothing,' Pheobe moans. She is half-lying, half sitting against the wall adjacent to Leo's and putting back a hand on her stomach. 'Whatever it is it is not 'nothing'. Your worry would not have multiplied by a thousand if it was.'

'Would you stop reading me?!,' Chris snaps. 

He turns his head in her direction. Yet, Leo can not help but notice that his youngest son keeps his brother in his visual periphery, never leaving him completely out of sight.

'It's rude,' Chris continues.

'I can't help it! You know that.'

'Back to the matter, people,' Paige interferes. 'What is happening?' She turns to glare at Wyatt: 'And why did you feel the need to send us valsing across rooms? For god's sake, we're not demons. We're your family!'

'We're going home,' Wyatt declares, no hint of amusement left on his face. His son crosses his arms, managing to look more intimidating than he did while using his powers on them. 'Now.'

'No,' Piper hisses. 'No. You're not. You don't get to play 'innocent in danger' to get my attention, then to end up **attacking your family** , only for you to disappear!', she yells. 'Wyatt Matthew Halliwell! I did not teach you that!'

'We. Are. Leaving,' he repeats with a pause between each words, looking two seconds away from unleashing his powers on them for a second time. 'It is not up for discussion,' he ends firmly. Wyatt turns back to stare at his brother intently. 'And we're going now.'

Then they disappear in a flurry of blue and dark orbs.

Piper is horrified. 'Dark orbs,' she murmurs, unknowingly giving voice to his inner turmoil.

Leo shakes his head and finally stands back up. He lets out a pained sound.

The sisters look at him in concern (Pheobe with a too knowing stare). However, Leo does not give them time to worry over him.

He orbs as well.

He has to find his youngest son before it is too late.


End file.
